A picture taken on June 17, 2009, shows people posing in front of the Winged Victory of Samothrace sculpture as they visit the Louvre museum in Paris. The Louvre museum will launch an appeal for one million euros in donations to restore The Winged Victory of Samothrace, a second-century BC marble statue of the Greek goddess Nike and one of the world's most famous sculptures. AFP PHOTO LOIC VENANCE.

PARIS(AFP).- The Louvre museum will launch an appeal for one million euros in donations to restore The Winged Victory of Samothrace, a second-century BC marble statue of the Greek goddess Nike and one of the world's most famous sculptures.

The appeal will be launched by the famed Paris museum on Tuesday, the day the statue will be removed from its normal site at the top of an imposing staircase.

The Winged Victory is one of the Louvre's main attractions along with the Mona Lisa and a statue of Venus de Milo.

Sculpted in white and grey marble, the Winged Victory portrays the goddess standing on the prow of a ship. The headless figure was discovered in Samothrace in 1863.

The Daru staircase which houses the Samothrace statue will also be renovated "without shutting off this major access which is used by seven million visitors every year," museum official Ludovic Laugier told AFP.

The cost of the renovation will amount to four million euros both for the staircase and the statue. The museum has already raised three million euros ($3.9 million) in donations from Nippon Television Holdings, Fimalac and Bank of America Merrill Lynch.